How To Plan Your Days For A Successful Family Vacation (2024)

Last Updated on March 11, 2024 by Nicole

Planning a holiday can be overwhelming, especially if you are trying to plan a vacation for a family. Beyond the logistics of where to go, where to stay and how best to travel to the destination, you have to consider the unique needs of your children. Most siblings are very different from each other, with individual interests and stamina. If you have children that are at different stages of their lives – say a elementary school aged child and a teenager – then the challenges of planning the perfect getaway that will engage both children become even greater. However, it can be done. In this article, I discuss how I have created dozens and dozens of amazing holidays for my husband and four kids. In addition, I set out how you can too!

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Background

I am a mother of four kids – two girls and two boys. They are all completely different humans who, left to their own devices, would spend each day focusing on their own distinctive interests and activities. There is also 7 1/2 years differences between the oldest and the youngest. As I write this, the oldest is 26 years old and the youngest is 19 years old.

One of my most favourite things that I loved to do (and still love) with my children is travel. We have been doing this together since they were babies and it is unequivocally one of the most important ways in which we reconnect and bond as a family. I can not emphasis enough how important our family holidays have been in creating the connections we have today as a family, even as everyone’s lives seem to get busier and more complicated.

As of today, I have been to over 70 countries and my children have been to over 40 countries.

Where Should You Go?

Creating lasting memories and bonds from holidays is not something that just happens. I believe that a lot of thought and planning needs to be involved in order to get the most out of your holiday. This starts with picking the right destination.

In How To Pick The Right Destination For A Family Vacation, I discuss how I chose where my family was ready to go at different stages in my children’s life. My whole goal was to make sure everyone finished the holiday loving it. This included me and my husband (we needed a holiday too!) and my children, even when they were really young.

If you pick the wrong destination for the age and temperaments of each member of your family, someone is going to be miserable and that will likely ruin the holiday for all.

Where Should You Stay?

Related to the important question is making sure that you have the right accommodation for your family. This seems self evident, but sometimes I don’t think it is properly thought out.

If each of your kids have their own room and their own bed at home, why do people think that sticking all your children in one room, or making them share a bed while on vacation, will be a seamless transition?

You might think, “Well, they should be grateful they are on holiday regardless”, and yes, that is theoretically true. However, they might be too young to get that, or the relationships between siblings might be very strained at that particular point in time.

What kind of holiday will it be if the kids are constantly fighting because they just can’t work out a problem or get enough space from each other? Not great, right?

So, it is something to think about it and one that I explore further in my blog, How To Choose The Right Accommodation For A Family Holiday.

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What Should You Do?

Finally, you need to figure out what to do once you get to your ultimate destination. Doing too much or too little for the ages and interests of everyone in your family will have a definite impact on everyone’s overall enjoyment.

How do you make sure your holidays are filled with just enough excitement and downtime to meet everyone’s needs?

Best Activities For A Young Family

The answer to that question begins with making a proper assessment of the age and maturity of your children.

Up until our youngest child turned 7 years old, we only went to warm destinations and stayed in accommodations that had a pool. We kept things very simple.

We packed up our travel stroller and spent our days at the beach or the pool. Sometimes, we took a boat trip, other times we might have rented snorkelling gear, or boogey boards. If there were child centred activities, like an Aquarium, we would go there.

These holidays were definitely not stimulating for an older child or an adult, but it worked when our children were young. They were peaceful and relaxing holidays for everyone.

The advantage of these sorts of holidays is that they don’t really require an itinerary. Once you have decided on your destination and accommodation, you can pretty much just arrive with your bathing suits and sunscreen, ready to get on with your holiday.

Best Activities For Older Children And Teens

However, there comes a time when this type of holiday becomes “boring” for kids. When exactly that happens to your family will depend on your children.

For us, this happened around the time my two older children were 14 and 10 years old (my other two were 7 and 8 years old).

Don’t get me wrong! My children were still excited to go on holiday. However, after the first or second day at the beach or the pool, they started to want to spend more time in their room, watching TV or movies, or playing on their devices. In other words, doing separate things.

This was not my goal for our holiday. I wanted to reconnect as a family; share experiences that would leave lasting memories; and spend more time together, not less.

I soon figured out that we needed to change the way we went on holiday in order to accomplish these goals.

Europe In Summer 2012

Our first major family trip beyond a beach/pool type of vacation was Europe in the summer of 2012. My oldest child was 14 years old and my youngest was 7 years old. My oldest was ready for culture and history whereas my youngest could still spend all day in the pool.

We spent 5 weeks in Europe and everyone had an amazing time. How did we do it?

Key To Success: Finding A Balance

I tried to make sure that every day in Europe was balanced – filled with fun, adventure, and of course, a little bit of history and culture.

It is tempting to go to Europe and plan to visit every important church, museum and art gallery that you have ever heard of in the city of your choice. You don’t know when you will be back. It costs a lot of money to get there and spend time there, especially with kids.

However, no matter how old your children are, I guarantee you that they don’t want to spend all day, every day, being educated.

They might be interested in seeing or willing to go to a church, or visit a museum, but they will have their limits.

After that, we all know what follows – a lot of complaining. You still might be able to drag them around one amazing cultural attraction to another, but you will not be reconnecting with your children.

You will be annoyed with them and them with you. Your lasting memories of this amazing adventure to Europe might end up being one that you never want to have again.

Our First Week in Europe

During our first week in Europe, we rented a house with a pool near the beach in Lloret Del Mar, Spain. Every morning, my three youngest kids got up and immediately went swimming.

After lunch, we explored. One afternoon, we drove to Girona and went on a half day walking tour of the City. On another afternoon, we visited the Dali Museum in Figueres. After each of these outings, we went home and the kids went back in the pool. 

In the early evening, we chose a nearby town, a different one each night, and went out for dinner and then, casually explored that town.

Ice cream treats were liberally handed out throughout the day, sometimes twice a day, depending on the circumstances. Some days were very hot and a little harder to stay focused. While other days, we had a long commute in the car. Sometimes, I was just impressed by how my kids behaved.

It is astonishing how ice cream can be the solution for most everything!

Full Day Trips

There were a couple attractions that I wanted to see that ended up being full day excursions. One day we went ocean kayaking with a guide. On another day, we did a full day tour where we drove to Cadaques and visited Dali’s home in Portillgat.

However, we never did back to back full day trips. They were always spaced out with more relaxed days in between.

Further, we never did back to back cultural or historical type tours regardless of whether they were half or full days. I always made sure that a more “serious” day was followed by a more fun or adventurous type day.

Finally, no matter what we did, I always made sure the kids made it back in the pool before bed time. A long day was quickly forgotten with some fun in the pool!

My kids slowly learnt that if they stayed focused and engaged on the historical and cultural things, they were rewarded with fun times in the pool, adventures and lots of ice cream!

My oldest was ready to expand her mind. She didn’t need the same persuasion to learn about the history of northern Spain or about Dali and his creations.

However, even with her, I know that balancing the educational days with the more carefree days were impactful.

Teenage Years And Beyond

Fast forward 6 years when my youngest turned 13 years old, and none of my children spent any time in a pool if air conditioning was available.

Nonetheless, the principles around which I organized each day on a family holiday that I started 6 years ago when my youngest was in elementary school – making sure that I created a balance – still ruled the philosophy behind the itineraries that I created.

My kids knew that for each day that included an educational experience, the next day would not. On the contrary, I did my best to find some excitement, if available.

In addition, if one day was very busy with travel or a tour, then the next day, I would try to let them sleep in a bit, start the day later, and only schedule a few hours of activity.

Beach Holidays

It might seem that the best type of vacation that you can take with your older children or teenagers is a beach holiday where the goal is do very little and everyone lazes around the pool. However, in my experience, these have always been the most disappointing type of holidays. Sure, the weather is beautiful and hot. The pool and beach are spectacular and inviting, and the food is often decadent.

But, what seems to happen is that everyone just does their own thing. Even worst, wifi is usually offered throughout the resort.

Once your children reach a certain age, it is very difficult to stop them from bringing their devices to the beach or the pool without an argument. Then, all they are doing is staying connected with their friends back home through all the various social media apps.

There are a few tricks that I have learnt over the years to deal with smart phones and my kids’ constant need to remain connected to their friends while we are on holiday. 

For tips, please refer to my blog How To Keep Kids Off Their Devices on Family Holidays.

However, this is definitely more of a challenge on a beach/resort type of family holiday.

Adventure Holidays

If your goal from a vacation is to reconnect with your children, then you need to find destinations where you can reconnect.

I have learnt that for my family, the best destinations are away from beach holidays and in developing countries where adventure and authentic connections with the local culture is easy to accomplish.

Further, wifi is limited, and some of the simplest activities, like exploring a bustling food market or hiking in the jungle are interesting and create lasting memories.

Then, you need to create a balanced itinerary for your trip. I still try to blend fun and adventure, with moments of learning.

Good examples of this are:

• 17 Day Indonesian Itinerary (A Mind Blowing 17 Day Indonesian Itinerary With Teens);
• 14 day Colombia Itinerary (Best 14 Day Colombia Itinerary With Teens); or
• 14 day India itinerary (Best 14 Day Itinerary In India With Teens).

Each day on your holiday can be simple, complicated, fun, educational, awe inspiring, humbling, exciting… depending on your family’s interests.

It’s really just about having moments where you get to be together and share life a little bit differently than at home.

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